Education for disability equality through disabled people’s life stories and narratives: working and learning together in a school-based professional development programme for inclusion

This paper reports on the findings of an action research project that took place in a primary school in Cyprus. A professional development programme was devised with contributions from teachers involved in the research. The programme was aimed at helping teachers to map the difficulties they encounter when working with their students on disability-related issues (e.g. attitudes towards disabled children and adults, disabled people’s rights, disabled people’s views about social inequalities). Theoretical concepts from Inclusive Education and Disability Studies informed the design of a programme in which disabled people’s own views and narratives of their lives or significant life incidences (e.g. found in interviews and published work) were used to help teachers confront their preconceptions about disability issues and think of new approaches to discuss disability with their students. The findings suggest that this is a promising approach. These include teachers’ understanding of disability as a social rather than a medical issue, increased confidence in discussing disability issues with students and curriculum enrichment through the use of disabled people’s narratives. This discussion maps the process through which teachers learn and teach using disabled people’s life stories, and draws links with international research and theoretical standpoints.     

Student Decision-Making about a Globally Familiar Socioscientific Issue: The value of sharing and comparing views with international counterparts

This paper focuses on the views of 16–17-year-old science students from England, Germany, Hong Kong and Sweden on whale hunting, and their perceptions of the views of their international counterparts. The students were all provided with the same decision-making task, discussed the issue in small groups and then presented their views on video, which were shared with their counterparts. The findings show that the decision-making task served to deepen and modify students' views across all nationalities, and the students generally valued and learned from the sharing of views with students of the same age from around the world. However, an important discovery was that the German students' opinions often ran counter to those from the other 3 locations, and the paper cautions against making broad-sweeping generalisations about students' views on socioscientific issues.     

An action research study designed to implement student negotiation to improve speaking classroom practice in Turkey

This paper reports the second stage of an action research study designed to improve the effectiveness of speaking classes through negotiating the lesson contents with students. The data were collected through interviews, questionnaires and observations as a way of eliciting students’ views. The research, conducted in an English language teaching department at a university in Turkey, comprised eight weekly-based interventions that involved planning, action, observation, and reflection, in which students were given a voice and classroom activities were designed accordingly. Student negotiation allowed for the identification of both structural and affective factors influencing the quality of speaking classes. The teacher’s roles in activities, the number of students in group work activities, the level of control in speaking activities, and the role of input were found to be issues worth considering in designing speaking classes. Issues such as finding the activity ‘interesting’ and ‘useful’, ‘feeling comfortable’ and ‘being competitive’ also influenced the effectiveness of activities. Involving students in this action research study promoted positive attitudes towards classes since students reported feeling valued and important.     

Undergraduate Mathematics Experience: Its Significance in Secondary Mathematics Teacher Preparation

This paper reports views of studentteachers on a one year secondary teacherpreparation course about their undergraduateexperiences of learning mathematics. Writtenresponse data were collected from 173 studentteachers (trainees) from several differentinstitutions and their views were collated andthematised. The principal issues that arise arethose of discontinuity of experience fromschool to university, the lack of preparednessfor ``struggle' in the face of challengingmathematics at university and an unresponsivestyle of teaching and assessing. Thesignificance of these views to the students asprospective teachers and the ways in which theycould be used by teacher educators on trainingcourses is discussed.     

二语写作中纠错性反馈研究述评

纠错性反馈在写作中发挥的作用一直以来都是学术界争议的焦点,研究者针对纠错性反馈的相关问题做了大量的实证研究,但对其是否能提高学生的写作准确性仍然没有得出确切的答案.文章从三个方面回顾了关于纠错性反馈的研究——纠错性反馈的有效性、不同反馈策略的有效性、反馈对不同错误类别的有效性,并指出其对未来研究和二语写作教学的启示.     

STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF GIFTEDNESS

While in education the views of adults are taken into account, the students are rarely consulted, not even the gifted ones! This paper reports on a small scale study carried out in a large Australian school to investigate student perceptions of giftedness, preferred teacher qualities and ways of providing for gifted students in the school setting. The views of gifted and average students were compared. While the study has limitations, interesting similarities and differences were found between responses of the two groups. If these views were found to be held by larger number of students, it would be important for adults to take note of them. In any case, such documentation and examination of student perceptions on the study topics might give teachers and policy makers some empirical basis for action from a quarter hitherto insuffiently explored.     

Assessment and Feedback: Institutional Experiences of Student Feedback, 1996 to 2007

Attention has recently focused on sectoral concern with assessment and feedback as a result of the National Student Survey. Government, the higher education agencies and the NUS have called for urgent action to address this concern. Existing data from institutional student feedback surveys, using the Student Satisfaction Approach, some dating back well over a decade, shows that the issue is not a new one. Indeed, several institutions have been addressing student concerns and as a result, have seen student satisfaction increase.
This paper explores the existing student feedback data in order to identify not only how students' perceptions of assessment and feedback have changed over time but also the main concerns of students and institutions and what action has been taken by institutions to increase satisfaction.
Several main concerns emerge from the data. Students value feedback as it is re-assuring as an indication of their progress and that it should be timely. Institutions that have used the Student Satisfaction Approach are concerned to clarify their processes to students, to increase their own efficiency in returning work, to monitor and review their assessment and feedback régimes and to share good practice, both internally and externally. Action taken as a result of listening to the student voice results in increased satisfaction but this can take several years.     

Examining the conflict and interconnectedness of young people’s ideas about environmental issues,responsibility and action

Objective: Young people’s environmental views are typically conflicted, with little recognition of the links between environmental issues or between environmental responsibility and action. The purpose of this study was to clarify whether young people’s understanding of the environment is in conflict or whether they are forming interconnections between issues, responsibility and action that have not yet been identified. Methods: Data relating to environmental attitudes, responsibility, issues and action was collected from 305 high school students in south east Queensland. Regression analyses were used to identify variables that influenced the importance young people placed on environmental issues and actions. Results: Young people’s ideas about environmental responsibility influenced the level of importance they placed on global warming and resource consumption. Young people’s sense of hope and hopelessness were the main drivers of their endorsement of individualistic and political actions for the environment. Conclusions: The unifying factor that influenced young people’s ideas about the environment was a sense of hope. Thus, while young people may already be intuiting their own sense of environmental interconnectedness, it is essential that this is expanded so that young people recognise the links between environmental issues, and the logical pathways that lead from environmental responsibility to action.     

Students' environmental NOS views,compassion, intent,and action: Impact of place‐based socioscientific issues instruction

Preparing students to achieve the lofty goal of functional scientific literacy entails addressing the normative and non‐normative facets of socioscientific issues (SSI) such as scientific processes, the nature of science (NOS) and diverse sociocultural perspectives. SSI instructional approaches have demonstrated some efficacy for promoting students' NOS views, compassion for others, and decision making. However, extant investigations appear to neglect fully engaging students through authentic SSI in several ways. These include: (i) providing SSI instruction through classroom approaches that are divorced from students' lived experiences; (ii) demonstrating a contextual misalignment between SSI and NOS (particularly evident in NOS assessments); and (iii) framing decision making and position taking analogously—with the latter being an unreliable indicator of how people truly act. The significance of the convergent parallel mixed‐methods investigation reported here is how it responds to these shortcomings through exploring how place‐based SSI instruction focused on the contentious environmental issue of wolf reintroduction in the Greater Yellowstone Area impacted sixty secondary students' NOS views, compassion toward those impacted by contentious environmental issues, and pro‐environmental intent. Moreover, this investigation explores how those perspectives associate with the students' pro‐environmental action of donating to a Yellowstone environmental organization. Results demonstrate that the students' NOS views became significantly more accurate and contextualized, with moderate to large effect, through the place‐based SSI instruction. Through that instruction, the students also exhibited significant gains in their compassion for nature and people impacted by contentious environmental issues and pro‐environmental intent. Further analyses showed that donating students developed and demonstrated significantly more robust and contextualized NOS views, compassion for people and nature impacted by contentious environmental issues, and pro‐environmental intent than their nondonating counterparts. Pedagogical implications include how place‐based learning in authentic settings could better prepare students to understand NOS, become socioculturally aware, and engage SSI across a variety of contexts.     

Physics and the Possibility of a Religious View of the Universe: Swedish Upper Secondary Students’ Views

This study is addressing both upper secondary students’ views of whether it is possible to combine a scientific view of the universe with a religious conviction, and their views of miracles. Students are asked about their own views as well as the views they associate with physics. The study shows that in some cases the students’ own views differ from the views they associate with physics. This we consider to be a possible problem for these students. Through looking at how the students explain the views they associate with physics concerning the issues above, we show that these views are for many of the students intertwined with and linked to other views, that in the students’ views, are part of the worldview of physics. It is common that the students associate scientism with physics. We question whether these kinds of views are necessary for the building of scientific knowledge. Consequences for the teaching and learning of science are discussed. Swedish National Graduate School in Science and Technology Education Research.     

Facilitating Learning from Formative Feedback in Level 3 Assessment

This paper presents the development, through action research, of formative elements in assessment in a level 3 compulsory module of the BSc Health Studies and BSc Nursing programmes at the University of Sunderland. The paper reviews three cycles of planning, implementing and evaluating change in assessment strategy and is written in the first person to emphasise the connections between the writer and the material. From a consideration of the format and characteristics of the assessment within the module, the action research is reported through the implementation of actions taken to facilitate more effective use of formative feedback. The evaluation of these actions through my own reflections, student performance, dialogue with team colleagues and student feedback through the production of short narrative accounts of their learning experience is outlined. The paper demonstrates that through explicitly using the learning potential within assessment, learning can be facilitated through challenging students to move from 'doing' assignments, to reflexive thinking about their writing.     

Measuring affective outcomes from a visit to a Science Education Centre

One of the problems in measuring affective outcomes from visits to science education centres like the CSIROSEC laboratories, is that different students have quite different experiences. They attend to different sets of activities or exhibits for different lengths of time, they have different amounts of previous knowledge and they may interact in different ways. Measurement of affective outcomes must take account of this diversity and, if it is to be useful for teachers, a measuring instrument must be brief, easy to understand and to score. This paper reports the results of a pilot study which devised a way of measuring affective outcomes from visits to a CSIROSEC. Specifically, students responded in terms of how easy they found various aspects of the activities, their enjoyment of what they did, and how helpful they found the visit in terms of their wider views and understanding about science and scientists. Specializations: gender issues and assessment in science and technology education.     

Test Feedback Class Sessions: Creating a Positive Learning Experience

Abstract

Educators are becoming increasingly sensitive to accommodating the needs of students from diverse backgrounds in their classes while ensuring that learning occurs. Group work often is the vehicle chosen to stimulate participation and positively affect learning. In this paper, we describe the development of parallel case studies related to diversity issues and motivational strategies for use in educational psychology and introductory human resource management courses, the reactions engendered, and issues related to classroom discussion groups. Overall, the cases were effective in stimulating higher-level thinking about real world, diversity-related issues.     

大学生健商缺失的社会学分析

大学生健商缺失已经成为社会各界关注的重要教育问题之一。本文基于社会学的视角,从健康社会学、社会流行病学、社会体制以及高效管理体制等角度分析大学生健商缺失的现状和原因。本文认为,应当从提高大学生健商意识、加强高校健康教育师资队伍建设、完善高校健康教育的评价体系、构建应对大学生健商缺失的社会机制等方面提高大学生健商水平。     

教师反馈及同侪反馈应用于公共英语写作教学之行动研究

网络的发展,给高校政治理论课的教学带来很大影响,如何适应日新月异的网络环境,已经成为高校政治理论课教学着重研究的重要课题。本文主要探讨了网络环境给大学生的思想状况、学习方式、政治理论课教师的角色定位、政治理论课教改的途径选择带来的影响。     

Students' Precollege Preparation for Participation in a Diverse Democracy

This study focuses on how students' precollege experiences predisposed them to 3 democratic outcomes: (a) ability to see the world from someone else's perspective; (b) beliefs that conflict enhances democracy; and (c) views about the importance of engaging in social action activities. We analyzed data from 3 flagship universities as part of a nationally funded research project and found first-year females are more likely than males to report values and beliefs consistent with democratic outcomes. Participation in race/ethnic discussions, student clubs, and volunteer work, as well as studying with students of different groups and discussing controversial issues are significant predictors in each model. Results also indicate that students might be unprepared to negotiate conflict in a diverse democracy, suggesting that college engagement will play a key role in fostering the development of democratic citizenship. This study also provides new measures of democratic outcomes to assess the impact of diversity and service learning initiatives.     

Teacher actions and student task involvement in high school science classrooms

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the investigation was to investigate the consistency of NOS views among high school students across different scientific and socio-scientific contexts. A total of 261 high school students from eight different schools in Lebanon participated in the investigation. The schools were selected based on different geographical areas in Lebanon and the principals’ consent to participate in the study. The investigation used a qualitative design to compare the responses of students across different contexts/topics. All the participants completed a five-item open-ended questionnaire, which includes five topics addressing scientific and socio-scientific contexts. The items of the questionnaire addressed the empirical, tentative, and subjective aspects of NOS. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to answer the research questions. Results showed that participants’ views of the emphasised NOS aspects were mostly inconsistent. Plus, there was variance in participants’ views of NOS between scientific and socio-scientific issues. Discussion of the results related to differential developmental progression, contextual factors, social constructivist perspective, different domains of knowledge, and students’ individual differences.     

Students’ qualification in environmental and sustainability education—epistemic gaps or composites of critical thinking?

In an ‘age of measurement’ where students’ qualification is a hot topic on the political agenda, it is of interest to ask what the function of qualification might implicate in relation to a complex issue as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and what function environmental and sustainability issues serve in science education. This paper deals with how secondary and upper secondary teachers in discussions with colleagues articulate qualification in relation to educational aims of ESD. With inspiration from discourse theory, the teachers’ articulations of qualification are analysed and put in relation to other functions of education (qualification, socialisation and subjectification). The results of this study show three discourses of qualification: scientific reasoning, awareness of complexity and to be critical. The discourse of ‘qualification as to be critical’ is articulated as a composite of differing epistemological views. In this discourse, the teachers undulate between rationalistic epistemological views and postmodern views, in a pragmatic way, to articulate a discourse of critical thinking which serves as a reflecting tool to bring about different ways of valuing issues of sustainability, which reformulates ‘matter of facts’ towards ‘matter of concerns’     

How Do Chemistry Teachers Deal with Students' Incorrect/Undesired Responses to Oral Classroom Questions? Exploring Effective Feedback Practices

In this paper, chemistry teachers’ reactions/behavior or actions following students’ undesired, unexpected or incorrect responses/answers to the posed teacher oral questions are reported. This study which was carried out in Tanzania in Iringa Municipality involved three chemistry teachers teaching in three different secondary schools. Actual teaching situations of the three teachers were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed interpretively. We also performed semi-structured interviews with these teachers to bring forth the teachers’ inherent perceptions about their practice in relation to what was observed of the teachers’ individual actual teaching situations. Up to eight different forms of teachers’ responses or reactions to students’ undesired responses or incorrect answers are discussed with respect to how each is perceived to either positively or negatively affect students’ progressive learning. From the study, productive questioning is affected by teachers’ inability to effectively use classroom powers to trigger students’ thinking, as well as not being able to use students’ varied views to achieve the set learning goals. Instead of using their power strategies to facilitate students’ engagement with the scientific matter, the teachers used their classroom powers to guard themselves against classroom insecurities during the teaching process, such as preventing students from questioning their subject knowledge competencies.

     

Learning How to Make Inquiry into Electricity and Magnetism Discernible to Middle Level Teachers

As university professors we sought to disrupt the practice of giving our students the actions we felt they should imitate in their teaching practice. Instead, we sought to actively engage teachers in the creation of workable solutions to real-life problems. We accomplished this by conducting a participatory action research project. This paper illustrates our action research project focused on preparing middle level science teachers to foster inquiry-based learning in their classrooms. The findings of this study not only lead to a revised professional development opportunity for science teachers, but also provided an example of university faculty engaging in pragmatic research focused on addressing contemporary issues in K-12 science education. The work reported within was partially supported by a National Science Foundation Grant. The opinions, views and conclusions expressed in this paper may not reflect those of the funding agency.